The age-related changes of cerebral gray matter volume in healthy adults

doi:10.3969/j.issn.1002-7386.2015.01.008

Abstract：Objective To explore the age-related changes of cerebral grey matter volume in healthy adults .Methods The 3D brain MRI was used to get T1WI image in 124 healthy volunteers.The VBM (Voxel-based morphometry) technique was applied to detect cerebral gray matter volume .The differences of cerebral grey matter volume in different sex groups and age groups were compared by Two-way analysis of variance .Results There were significant main effect of age between every two groups ( P <0.05,FDR correction).As compared with youth group,the middle age group showed that obvious brain atrophy regions located in the frontal gyrus ,bilateral triangle inferior frontal gyrus ,right inferior frontal gyrus ,bilateral thalamus in return,middle temporal gyrus,right superior frontal gyrus,middle temporal gyrus pole,right insula,right caudate nucleus and right parietal lobe .As compared with middle age group ,the older age group showed that obvious brain atrophy regions located in right middle temporal gyrus pole,amygdale,posterior cingutate,lingual gyrus,hippocampus/parahippocampus and inferior temporal pole .As compared with youth group ,the older age group showed that the cerebral gray matter volume was extensively decreased in whole brain except for occipital lobe .When multiple alignment correction was not used ,interaction effect could be observed between youth group and middle age group in right middle temporal gyrus ,right superior temporal gyrus ,left angular gyrus,right occipital lobe,central left cingulate gyrus,right inferior frontal gyrus in central triangle ( P <0.01,no correction). Conclusion During normal aging process ,whole brain gray matter volume is negatively correlated to age .However different encephalic regions exist different shrink modes .Generally the regions follow the regulation-"first-in last-out"in which the frontal lobe is the most easily affected by age .The grey matter atrophy process in females is slower ,as compared with that in males.